Gang Shooting Claims Girl's Life

A 15-year-old Waukegan girl died Thursday of a gunshot to the head, the first fatality in a bloody 2 1/2-week gang war.

Mary Davis, 15, of the 1500 block of Lyons Court was shot about 10:45 p.m. Wednesday while she was sitting in the back seat of a car just a few hundred yards from her home. Police said they believe the driver of the car and another passenger may have been gang members, as were her assailants.

According to police, Davis and others were driving in a Buick LeSabre, which was was approached from the opposite direction by another vehicle. The occupants of the other vehicle opened fire with at least one semiautomatic handgun, police said. The LeSabre backed across a front lawn and rolled about 75 yards before crashing into the front doorway of 1713 Lyons Ct.

Waukegan Police Capt. Don Johnson said a second car may have pulled up behind the victim's car to trap it.

Davis was shot once in the head, police said. She was flown to Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Medical Center in Milwaukee and was pronounced dead at 10:15 a.m. Thursday, a hospital spokesman said.

No one else was injured in the incident, police said.

Police were seeking suspects in Davis' shooting but had none in custody.

Since July 5, five other shootings, none fatal, have occurred on Waukegan's South Side, all of which police believe are related to a dispute between two rival gangs.

Police said a gang war is being waged around the Utica Street and Genesee Street public-housing complexes, located along South Avenue. Four shooting incidents have occurred in the 24-square-block area since July 5.

The first, a double shooting, occurred July 5 when a 22-year-old Kenosha man and a 17-year-old local youth were shot as they sat in a car parked near McAlister and Ravine Avenues.

David Prisk of Kenosha received a gunshot wound to the back, while Kenyan Hughes was shot in the mouth, buttocks and a leg.

Police arrested an alleged gang member, Fred Dixon, 18, of 565 S. Utica St., on July 14 and charged him with attempted murder, aggravated battery and aggravated discharge of a weapon in that shooting. He remains in Lake County Jail on $150,000 bail.

Also on July 5, a 38-year-old Waukegan woman was shot in the wrist while sitting in a car with two other men at South and Utica Streets. Velma Edwards was treated and released at a hospital. Police are searching for the suspect.

On July 7, a youth was shot in a leg on the 500 block of South Utica. Police are seeking a suspect.

Early Monday, two 17-year-old youths received minor buckshot wounds to the chest at the Genesee Street public housing development, 595 S. Genesee St. They were treated and released from a hospital. No suspects have been arrested, police said.

Mary Davis was a former student at Benny Junior High in Waukegan, neighbors said.

Loreal Young, 14, a classmate and friend of Davis, described her as a "nice, straight girl" who got mixed up in the wrong crowd.

"The people were bad people," Young said of Davis' friends.

Young's mother, Shirley, said Davis was "just a typical girl. She was respectful to me, a nice young lady. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Repeated attempts to reach members of Davis' family were unsuccessful.

Viola Banks, 73, said she was sitting on her living room couch reading the Bible when the car careered through her front yard and smashed into the door.

"At first I thought the lightning did all of this," Banks said. "Then I saw the headlights shining through the door."

Banks said there was no driver behind the wheel. But sprawled across the back seat, face down in a puddle of blood, was Davis.